Take Up Your Cross

Well, amen and welcome. Let me say a word of welcome to all of our summit campuses. Most of our campuses are meeting back in person right now, as well as we know that there are thousands of you that are joining us in your homes and some of you by yourself, some of you in small clusters of people.

I want to say a word of greeting to all of you. We are still one church, even though we meet at many different locations here on the weekend. Luke chapter 14, if you got your Bible this weekend, and I hope that you do have a Bible, I want to talk with you this weekend about Jesus's staggering invitation to follow him and then ask you to consider whether or not you have actually responded to it. As I have been telling you now for several weeks, at the end of this message, I'm going to ask every single one of you who is willing to commit or to recommit to being a disciple, not talking just a handful of you or those of you that are new to church. I'm going to ask everybody whether you've been a member here for four minutes or 40 years that you take a moment to recommit as we come begin to emerge out of lockdown to what it means to be a disciple.

But what I'm going to do now is I'm going to spend the next 30 minutes, 30, 35 minutes trying to talk you out of making that commitment. Seriously, because that's what I believe Jesus does here at the end of Luke 14 in the passage we're about to look at. Verse 25, Jesus looks around and he sees great crowds following him, which is encouraging for any preacher, right? At this point in his ministry, his message is catching on. His reputation for miracles gathers crowds everywhere that he goes. His approval rating is off the charts.

He is trending on Twitter, his stock is soaring, however you want to think about it. Verse 26, Jesus looks at this immense crowd and says, verse 26, if anybody comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, hate his wife, hate his children, hate his brothers and his sisters, yes, even hate his own life, well, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Verse 33, jump down there, and any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. If you underline stuff in your Bible, by the way, underline those words, renounce all that he has, all that he has, then star the word all above it, everything.

Nothing is excluded, absolutely nothing is excluded from Jesus' rule over our lives. Now, y'all, I have to imagine that Jesus' disciples were pretty bewildered at this. They had been enjoying the big crowds following Jesus and they were like, Jesus, you can't gain momentum for a movement telling people they're required to hate their parents and their children and their brothers and sisters to follow you. That's not how you rally the troops, Jesus. That's not how you get people on the Jesus bus. Nobody's going to buy into Team Jesus when you tell them they've got to renounce even loyalty to their families. But y'all, here's the thing, Jesus wasn't trying to sell anything. He's not trying to build a mega church. Quite simply, he has an offer of salvation more valuable than anything else on earth. And it's only given on his terms.

So here's my question for you this weekend. What do you think it means to be Jesus' follower? Do you really believe what he says here? I ask that because we have, in America in general and in the South in particular, we have adopted a reduced version of Christianity. For us, becoming a Christian means embracing a certain creed, adopting a set of morals, praying a prayer, then commencing on a set of religious practices. For Jesus, however, becoming his follower was something so radical, so total, that by comparison, every other commitment, every other commitment in our lives compared to it would look like hate. By the way, I know that statement hate your father or mother throws some of you. You're like, well, I thought it was God's will for us to love our families. Yes, lay down our lives like Christ loves the church, be devoted to our kids. Yes.

But Jesus is speaking comparatively. He is saying that he deserves a loyalty that is so strong that in comparison to it, every other relationship, every other loyalty, even our most intimate ones are going to seem like hate. Think of it like this. If you have a pet, I imagine that you love that pet unless that pet is a cat and then you are just waiting out the time for it to die so you can get a real pet like a dog or a gerbil or a hermit crab, anything, right? But for any other pet, I'm just kidding. But for any other pet, you love that pet and you are committed to that pet on some level.

In fact, I know for a fact, some of you spend a great deal of money. I know some of you that have flown across country to go get your pet. But I would imagine that as committed as you are to that pet, your love for your pet pales in comparison to your love for your children or your spouse or a best friend or a parent.

By the way, if you're having to sit there and think about that right now, that's not good. But for most of you, if you had some situation where you had to choose between the well-being of your pet or the life of your child, it's not really a choice at all, is it? Yes, you are committed to your pet, but compared to the intensity of your commitment to your child, your commitment to your pet would seem like hate. That is the loyalty that Jesus both deserves and demands. Our loyalty to him has to be so strong that in comparison to him, every other relationship in our lives, even our most intimate ones, are going to seem like hate, period.

Full stop. And if you are not willing to give him that, Jesus says, then you've got no business following him. Verse 27, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cause? Whether he's got enough to complete it, you don't want to get into a project, get halfway done, and then not be able to finish it, that's embarrassing.

You've got some half-shell of a building out there that everybody walks by and says, well, look at that guy. He started, but he went bankrupt and couldn't finish it. Verse 29, otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, this man, what a fool, began to build and was not even able to finish. Before you come to Jesus, Jesus is saying, before you come to me, you've got to think, am I ready to go all the way with him? Because you see, coming to Jesus is not something you do just because it makes you feel good or because it adds some missing piece in your life or gets you out of a jam.

You've got to ask yourself if you're ready to go the full distance with him. You see, back then, and today, a lot of people are initially attracted to Jesus because of what he can do for them. He can provide relief from your burdens. He can grant you forgiveness of sins. He can take you to heaven.

He can give you help in your marriage and your family. And you're like, well, that's worthy of some level of devotion, but here's the thing. At some point, if you are serious about following Jesus, obedience to him is going to cost you. At some point, obedience to him is going to take you 180 degrees opposite of the direction that you think you want to go. Following him is not going to make life easier. It is going to make life harder. It is not going to lead you to fields of ease and abundance.

It's going to lead you to paths of difficulty. The question is, are you ready to follow him then? Notice, notice that Jesus said following him means taking up a cross. He didn't say take up my teachings and follow me. He didn't say take up my moral code and follow me or take up my liturgical calendar and follow me or take up this warm and fuzzy God blanket and follow me. He said take up my cross and follow me. Take up your cross and follow me. What did Jesus mean by take up your cross?

What did he mean? Well, we realize that for that first audience listening to Jesus, the cross was not like it is for many of us, some sentimental piece of jewelry or a pretty symbol of their faith. In fact, at the time, the cross was not a religious symbol at all. The cross was an instrument of torture and execution. They would have been very familiar with it because they had seen it thrust in their faces as a tool of oppression. It would be like today some politician saying, come join my campaign. Strap yourselves to your electric chair and let's go. By the way, for the first Christians who heard these words, saying take up your cross was not poetic or metaphorical language at all.

It was quite literal. Christianity was birthed into a context where Christians were often put onto crosses for choosing to follow Jesus. Nero. Nero, who was likely Caesar when Luke was writing this stuff down. Nero, we know, falsely blamed Christians for the great fire of Rome and then used that as a pretext to hunt them down and then feed them to the lions and others he would tie to poles and set them on fire to illuminate his gardens at night.

Following Nero was a ruler named Vespasian who ruled between 69 and 70 AD, right in the middle of this early church era. He was the one who sent Roman troops into Jerusalem to desecrate the temple. He then took thousands of Jews, many of whom would have been those first Christians that got saved in the first chapters of Acts, many of them the ones that would have been in Jesus' first audience here, and he hung them up on crosses or along the road to Jerusalem for miles. Then there was Domitian, Domitian who took persecution to even new levels.

It was, in a word, demonic. For example, he knew that Christians would not bow the knee to the emperor so Domitian would show up in a town like Ephesus unannounced and he would demand that everyone be assembled at the amphitheater and commanded to worship him and whoever did not worship him would be hauled immediately into the Colosseum, him and their families, and be fed to the lions. He booked Christians into cages with wild animals for sport. That's the context into which this call to take up your cross was first heard. For them, following Jesus might mean that they lost every other relationship and they had to be more committed to Jesus than their own lives. By the way, that was not just unique to the early church either.

Throughout time and history and even places today around the world, people often have to make that same choice. John Bunyan who lived in England in the 17th century who wrote the best-selling book of all time except for the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, was told in the 17th century that he could not preach the gospel, a gospel that differed from the official state religion which was not preaching the gospel. He refused so he went right on preaching so they put him in prison. They told him that they would let him go if he would swear on the Bible that he would not preach anymore. But he said, I can't do that and so he remained in prison voluntarily and he said in his journal, he said, it tore my heart out because I had this family that was already poor. They were already so poor and he had a blind daughter and he said just the thought of her and how much suffering my obedience to Christ was costing them. In fact, let me just quote you from his journal here, the partying with my wife and poor children has often been to me in this place like the pulling of flesh from my bones. I'm aware of the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor family meets with because of my imprisonment especially my poor blind child who lays nearer to my heart than anything else on earth.

The thought of what my precious blind one is going through shatters my heart into pieces. But yet I must venture all with God. Though I feel like a man pulling down his house upon the head of his wife and his children, yet I must do it.

I must do it. I must obey Christ. Now the circumstances of these believers might have been different. We live in a different era thank God. But just because our time period is different doesn't mean our commitment to the lordship of Christ can be any less.

So the question is what about you? Would you be willing to obey Jesus if it meant a literal cross or having to be removed from your family? Though the circumstances these Christians lived in were more extreme than ours our commitment to Christ is not supposed to be any less extreme than theirs. The cross they were asked to take up is the one that we are asked to take up as well. So let's just ask this weekend this morning what exactly does take up your cross mean for us?

Well in context I would say it means two things. Number one I would say total self-surrender and number two I'm going to explain its personal embrace of the Great Commission. Total self-surrender personal embrace of the Great Commission. Let me look at those one at a time. Number one total self-surrender total self-surrender.

A person on a cross has given up total control of their lives. They are literally under arrest. They are bound hand and foot totally powerless to the will of their captor. You can think of them as good as already dead. They're not making plans for the future.

They've got no plans. All their plans died when they got tied to a cross. To pick up our cross means a total surrender of our will to Jesus. A forfeiting of anything that we thought we wanted anything we desire or anything we believe apart from what Jesus wants. Does that describe your relationship with Jesus? Have you brought all your let's start with your beliefs have you brought all your beliefs captives to his teaching? I ask that because I talk to a lot of people who would say that Jesus is Lord but then for whatever reason seem to feel the freedom to decide for themselves what they want to believe about homosexuality or gender or sex in general and if something in the Bible offends them or it makes them uncomfortable they seem to have no problem saying well I just don't really believe that right now and I just want to say back to them I'm like I don't think you understand what lordship means. If Jesus is Lord I believe what he says because he says it. Whether I disagree with it or not or even if I'm angered by it that's kind of irrelevant.

Y'all listen you understand this right? I've been a Christian for 25 some years I've you know done all the study in theology I've preached it for a number of years there's a lot of things in this book I still am confused by and some of them I'm offended by and angered by. And the question I have to ask myself is is he Lord or not? Now I remember hearing a story one time about Billy Graham who was in when he was in college a professor of his just you're trying to explain that certain parts of the Bible were outdated and some of the morals were regressive and all these things and Billy Graham said it just threw my faith into turmoil he said I took a long walk through the woods by myself he said I wasn't sure what my future was going to be like and he said there was this fateful moment where I came to there's an old stump there he says I took my Bible I got down on my knees and I put it down in front and said God I there's so much in this I don't understand so much in it I'm not sure how to explain but I believe that this book was authored by you I believe that Jesus is Lord and I'm going to accept this and build my life on it being your word even if even if there's things I don't understand or that offend me he said that was a point of demarcation in my life I've had lots of questions since he said but I my life has been built on the understanding that Jesus is Lord and therefore I bring every thought captive under his direction. Has that happened to you? Have you brought your will your decisions captive to his direction? A lot of times we ask that here by saying have you given Jesus a blank check of your life and I've explained to you that my dilemma is when I first started to use that analogy 20 years ago everybody nodded their head now there's a whole bunch of millennials in gen z who are like what are you talking about I actually brought one just because this is like I went to the museum and I pulled out remember this thing it's a check and yes I marked out my bank account so don't freeze frame and try to zoom in close there this is a blank check it's got my signature on it which authorizes you to take whatever money out of my account that's there then the place is blank what it's for and the amount is blank back in the in the old days you know you'd hand this to somebody if you weren't quite sure how much money you owed them and if you trusted them then you give this to them and say just fill it out later I've already got my signature on it but if you guys are as old as I am remember this there was always that that moment that gut check moment when you're like do I really trust my brother-in-law is he who he says he is right can I trust this guy because because they literally had access you you would just said yes to whatever they were going to ask for when you come to Jesus that's essentially what it is like I don't know I don't even know the question yet the answer is yes wherever you tell me to go whatever you tell me to do that's what I'm gonna do what I prefer what most people prefer to give to Jesus is this it's a gift card right this was the Hardee's for five dollars and so you're beginning your walk with Jesus and you're like oh I'm ready you know and and and this is your first initial act right and what you think it means to grow in Christ was that you upgrade your gift card yeah I'm not just giving him five dollars of Hardee's I brought another one this is Angus barn that's a nicer gift card and you're like I've gone this is early stud now I'm going to this but here's the dilemma both of these have a fixed amount this one's worth five dollars and this one's worth I don't know let's say a hundred dollars somebody gave it to me I'll go test it out later but you know this one's worth whatever amount of money it's worth but the point is when I have exhausted this gift card the person that gave it to me has no more obligation to me right this was a very generous gift but it was a limited gift and a lot of people are like that with Jesus they're like I'm growing in Christ I'm giving you more expensive gift cards and Jesus is like both are equally worthless to me because what I demand what I want all that I will take is a blank check so keep your Angus bard gift cards and keep them home your Hardee's there's no more value right I'll throw that out there for somebody who's gonna get it I would get that if I were you I have every bit of confidence that after this message is over that will still be sitting there because people will buy like what is that worth I do think the Frisco burger is amazingly underrated I'll just say that so you can at least get one of those with that all right Bojay if it was Bojangles you'd be in let me take you to another place really quickly where Jesus talks about this Luke chapter 9 verse 57 Gia Luke records this teaching of Jesus twice then I'll ask you a few more questions along the way okay I'm gonna walk you through this this passage Luke 9 57 as they were going along the road somebody said to him I'll follow you wherever you go Jesus said to him well foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head okay like I said in those days a lot of people follow Jesus because of what he could do for them he could do miracles he could heal the sick he calm storms multiply food his teachings brought them comfort all the one about the the father and the prodigal son just brings me to tears and then there's the thing about him knowing how many hairs I got in my head and and not a sparrow fall all that just makes me feel so awesome and then there was a lot of religious students who followed Jesus because it was a way of beefing up their resume you see in those days if you wanted to gain credibility as a teacher you attach yourself to other famous teachers so a lot of people are following Jesus for that reason today today many people come to Jesus because they know that he can help their marriages he can bless their finances he can relieve their burden sometimes even heal their body he can help them be successful and yes listen to me he can do all of those things but here's the question what if obedience to Jesus leads you away from all of those things what if it leads you to a place where you don't even have a place to lay your head down write this down are you following Jesus for comfort or for a cross Jesus says to them in these verses if following me leads you away from even having a place to call home is that where you will go is he enough even without a home it's like I told you Jesus was not into the follow me for your best life now kind of invitation he was into the I'm enough for you even if you have the worst life kind of invitation Luke 9 verse 59 to another he said follow me but this one replied Lord let me first go and bury my father but Jesus said to him leave the dead to bury their own dead but as for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God now that seems kind of harsh doesn't it can't even get my dad into a decent grave scholars say this wasn't about going to his dad's funeral to pay his respects or any kind of grotesque thing where he's supposed to leave his you know dad you know unburied it was about going home to obtain his inheritance this man wanted to follow Jesus but he didn't want to give up that inheritance because that inheritance was something he'd been looking forward to his whole life it was his security for the future and Jesus says are you willing to follow me if it means giving up that inheritance here's a question for you are there any limits to your obedience is there any place where you would say I will not I cannot walk away from that more practically is there anything that he's told you to stop doing that you're still doing some relationship you're in some habits is there anything that he has told you to start doing that you're not doing yet think tithing think generosity think getting baptized think obedience to some call maybe engaging in some ministry it can be as simply as simple as joining the church a follower of Jesus has forsaken all that Jesus has forbidden and commenced all that Jesus commanded it's like I just said you got to put your life down as a blank check and say Lord Jesus all that I have all that I am all that I ever hoped to be I give now entirely forever to you my oldest daughter is 17 my second daughter is 15 about turned 16 and so we're in those driver's ed years and I'm not sure if they do driver's ed the same I'm assuming they do I didn't actually get a look inside the car but when I took driver's ed it was a really cheap little car didn't have much power in it but it was like a normal car except for one thing and that was in the passenger seat where the driver's ed instructor sat there was a break that's still how they do it it's just one breath all it was just one break and so we drive around and who was in charge of the car well I was mostly except for whenever my driver's ed instructor wanted to veto what I was about to do because I don't know it was about to be dangerous or something and so I was kind of in charge of the car but any time that man wanted he just pressed on that break we'd come to a stop override veto no you cannot do that question I think for many of us when it comes to Jesus is I'd say for the majority of you you put Jesus in the driver's seat of your car the question is who owns the brake pedal there's still a brake pedal there's still like yet yeah I'm gonna follow you I'm gonna let you influence but there's a few places where I'm like nope put the brake on any limits to your obedience Luke 9 61 yet another said I will follow you Lord but let me first say farewell to those in my home and Jesus said to him no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God now again that seems a little harsh doesn't it you know but this was not just a let me run home and tell my mom that I'm not gonna be home for dinner so they don't turn in a missing person report on my behalf verse fix verse 62 shows you that there was hesitation sinful hesitation here is the question for you are you delaying any area of obedience you in high school college and you're thinking well when I get older I'll follow Jesus fully after I get settled in my career when I'm out of this situation Jesus could not say it more clearly you cannot have me and delayed obedience it's either full surrender or no surrender let me use marriage as an example imagine after dating Veronica my wife for a while I'd said to her hey I want to marry you there is no other girl I want to grow old with but I am also having fun right now play in the field so here's the deal let's get married so I can have you locked down for life because I don't want to lose you and I know a girl like you that if I don't lock you down you're gonna get taken up by somebody else and so I want to lock you down but I don't want to live together at first because I'd like to have my nights free to keep you know doing what I do and play in the field I'll settle down with you when I'm older of course she's not gonna of course she's not gonna respond positively to that to have somebody the specialist Veronica I had to give myself fully to her here's the point is that Veronica over there here's the point many people think they already belong to Jesus because like well I prayed the prayer except the Christ when I was 12 but they think following him fully is is gonna happen only later and what I'll tell you is nope just as Veronica would not have put up with two years of our marriage with me where I just ignored her Jesus will not have followers who not to do not submit to following him fully immediately when Jesus commands you to do something are you the kind of person who asked questions life is it safe how much will it cost what will these people think what is it gonna do to my relationships at school what is it gonna mean for my college life what's it gonna mean for my bank account for a true follower of Jesus there are no such questions there are no hesitations what Jesus commands you do so take up your cross means total self surrender it means death to any control you claim over your life it also means number two a personal embrace of the Great Commission a personal embrace of the Great Commission it's not just passive surrender Jesus is after as if you come to a point we say okay I obey any commands that you give me right you speak to me audibly from heaven I'm submitted to do that and then you just go on about your life the cross think about it was Jesus's instrument of world salvation so to take up the cross meant actively pro actively devoting your life to his mission I point this out because a lot of people think becoming a Christian simply means obeying the Ten Commandments and then going on with your usual life and career goals unless God appears to you in a burning bush or a bowl of Cheerios or something but that is not true following Jesus means accepting his mission as your own and pursuing it it's like I said a few weeks ago there is no such thing as a follower of Jesus who is not devoted to the mission no such thing let me give you two very practical questions here number one have you embraced the Great Commission have you personally embraced the Great Commission what is the Great Commission number of places in the Bible spell it out let me just highlight one for you second Peter three nine the Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance y'all people talk about finding the will of God I got good news for you this morning it's not lost it's right there the Lord is not willing that any should perish and he wants to use you to bring them to repentance what is God's will for my life it is God's will to use you to bring people around you to faith in Christ do you know what God's Word says about the lost second Thessalonians 7 1 verses 7 through 9 when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire he will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might revelation 2015 and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life anyone from any place on earth of any backgrounds he was thrown into the lake of fire how could you and I believe that gospel and do nothing listen yes God did not make all of us the same and he's got lots of roles for us in the body of Christ you're not all supposed to be like me doing what I do full-time by the way some of you are and I pray that God raises up lots of men and women for for full-time ministry from this church but we don't all have the role that I have but all of us regardless of our role have got one thing in common and that is it is our personal responsibility to tell the people in our lives about Jesus the cross demands something of us if you believe that it has to change your priorities the story I always think I like in fact I spoke a couple days ago at North Raleigh Christian Academy and I told him the story but it's it's like a story I heard years ago about a man who was a true story of a guy that was driving outside of Los Angeles about 20 years ago when there was an earthquake seemed like a pretty severe earthquake but it didn't seem to the man like he'd done it that much damage he pulled his car off the side road went out the earthquake earthquake was over he pulled the car back on the road and started to cross one of those big bridges that goes over those body of water out there and so he said he's driving along and going across this bridge just minutes after this earthquake is done and he notices the taillights of the car in front of him just disappear so he stopped his car and he got out and looked and he said to his horror he saw that one of the sections evidently in the earthquake and this bridge had just fallen out and he'd seen the car just plunge off into the water below so the man turns around and there's other cars coming down this bridge so he starts to wave try to get their attention now it's 3 30 in the morning outside of Los Angeles and there's a guy on the side of the road waving his arms he said he watched he said not one not two not three he said i watched four cars drive right by me 55 60 miles an hour all of them plunging to the death below he said i saw a bus coming across the bridge and i just made up my mind if this bus goes off this bridge it's gonna have to take me with it so i stood right there in the middle he says i took my shirt off and i was waving my arms and he goes that bus was flashing his lights and honking his horn and i just wouldn't move i stood there bus driver gets out he's cussing and yelling and and i show him i show him about the the bridge and so of course the bus driver took his bridge and parked it there you know so he cut off access so people couldn't keep doing that when i think about that story the question i hear is is that is that an abnormal reaction think about you if you had been the first person there would you have done something similar i would think so i can't see you you know say well i'm just gonna stand here on the side of the road and try to show people by my example what the right thing to do is here no you would say hey people are about to die and i see something they don't see would you have cared that they thought that you were a little bit out of your mind no because you would say i see something they don't see that demands something how could you and i understand what the bible says about eternity and about people without jesus and just say i'm just gonna go on about my life it just doesn't make sense have you embraced the great commission as your own following jesus means reassessing your talents and your resources in light of the great commission we challenge all of our students here to put the mission of god first and where they pursue their career we challenge them to give at least the first two years after they graduate college to go and explore a career just in tandem with somewhere we're playing the church we're like you got to get a job somewhere why not get a job at a place where god's doing something strategic by the way if you're a college student one of the best practical steps for that is do city project it's one of the best things you do around here i'm making sure the applications are still open but let's just say that they are and you if you're if this summer it's a great way for you to engage in what god may want to do with your life but see that kind of thinking is not just for students you at whatever age need to reassess your gifts why did god give you the talents that he gave you why did he give you the resources that he gave you are you using those for the great commission only when life to live will soon be passed only what's done for christ will last follow me jesus said i'll make you a fisher of men not follow me and i'll make a handful of you fishers of men that's what he has for you there's no such thing as a follower of jesus who is not devoted to the mission here's the second practical question on this one are you obeying his command to care for the poor let me do this quickly jesus said repeatedly throughout the book of luke that if we do not act on behalf of the poor our faith is not real jesus came to set the captive free and to relieve the burden of the suffering if we're not doing that we cannot call ourselves his followers in fact luke 16 jesus describes a rich religious man who had everything right unfortunately we're not gonna be able to get into this story in this series i don't think but this man believes all the right things he lived by all the right morals he was super involved in religion he was on every committee there was in the synagogue but he ignored the suffering of the people around him it's not my responsibility he said i i didn't steal from them everything i've gotten i've earned honestly one of the most shocking twists in any of jesus stories that uber religious man ended up in hell his lack of engagement with the poor was the indication that his faith was not real by the way that story's not a fluke proverbs 21 13 whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered look at that you pray you go to church faithfully but you shut your ears to the poor and so when you pray it doesn't matter proverbs 28 27 whoever gives to the poor will not lack but he who hides his eyes from them will get many a curse you will be cursed by god you say you're a disciple but have you asked how is my life supposed to lift others up and how is it supposed to relieve suffering around me are you thinking about your career only in terms of how it can help you accomplish your goals how it can gain for you the house you've always wanted the vacations you want the retirements you want where have you asked how god is supposed to use your talents your resources to lift up others well let me say it like this is the trajectory of your life going toward human suffering or away from it many of us are using our privileges and our our ability to make money to isolate ourselves from human suffering jesus said my followers will go toward it here's the bottom line when jesus called people to follow him he did not mince words he said take up your cross hate your father and mother renounce everything it was almost like he wanted to turn people away but of course that was not his goal he wanted us to count the cost he wanted us to think about exactly what he was asking and not attempt to use jesus as just a fire escape or a divine genie to help us through our problems and that's what i want today also i want you to carefully count the cost because praying a prayer or raising your hand or getting baptized or getting involved in a small group none of those things is the essence of discipleship total surrender and a personal embrace of the great commission is that what you're ready for that what you committed to if your answer to that is yes does your life demonstrate that kind of radical obedience now in every area you want to stand where he tells you to stand even if it's unpopular and you got to stand alone are you willing to testify to jesus and say you belong to him and that he's most important thing in your life even if others make fun of that you're willing to be generous where he tells you to be generous to go where he tells you to go do what he tells you to do don't tell me you're ready to go all the way with jesus if you're not obeying him in the areas where he's already spoken yo why do so many so-called christians stop following jesus when it gets hard john rw stott one of the great christian leaders billy graham's friend from previous generation the christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict half-built towers the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish for thousands of people still ignore christ's warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so the result is the great scandal of christendom today so-called nominal christianity christians get somewhat involved enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable their religion is a great soft cushion that protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life but doesn't transform their lives in radical ways no wonder cynics dismiss religion as escapism friend i need you to choose nominal christianity or real christianity i need you to choose jude jesus as a comfort or jesus as a cross so today i'm gonna ask you to make a very simple decision in that direction i'm gonna ask you to recommit to the five essential identities of a follower of jesus but before i walk you through that i want to speak one one last word of truth into you okay listen the context into which jesus made these demands of discipleship to renounce everything and to becomes dedicated to jesus that that compared to your commitment to him every other relationship would seem like hate the context was in response to his incredible offer to us you see the verses leading right up to luke 1425 you can read it later jesus had compared the offer of salvation to this wealthy powerful king who threw this gigantic feast and invited a bunch of honored guests shockingly however a lot of these guests started to make excuses for why they couldn't come and these excuses range from the lame to the absurd well i just bought a piece of property i need to go out check it out well i just i just got married my wife and i really want some alone time the king says to his messenger he's like all right well if these people won't come then i want you to go out to the ghettos go find the the poor and the homeless and the diseased those who are living in ditches and under bridges and i want you to tell them to come the whole point of the story is how absurd it would be to turn down an offer like that from the king especially if you were one of the homeless and the diseased friend do you realize what you're being offered what excuse could possibly justify rejection or even hesitation in the face of so great an offer and so i would say to you yes the demands of jesus are severe but you know what jesus offers to you he that has the son first john 512 he that has a son has life whatever does not have the son will never see life eternal life eternal adoption into the family of god forgiveness the power of resurrection and work in you to heal and restore you both you and those around you his presence inside you that will never leave you or forsake you a divine inheritance that is kept in heaven for you a home and an eternity of joy of delight and blessedness with the family of god in god's presence for right now the promise that a sovereign good heavenly father watches over you so carefully and so tenderly that he knows when even a hair falls from your head and then pledges to work all things in your life for good that he will lead you besides still waters of fulfillment and make your cup of joy overflow even in the midst of pain and that in his presence even in the presence of your enemies he'll prepare for you a feast of satisfaction that goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life they'll literally stalk you you couldn't get away from them if you tried and then you'll dwell in the house of the lord forever that's a god who in your worst moments and your worst moments didn't despise you but had mercy on you and came after you and then even after you spurned him he kept coming he never gave up he never looked away he loved you faithfully and consistently even in your worst moments he loves you right now he is pursuing you no matter what a mess you've made of your life no one's love for you has ever been as constant or consistent as fervent as his he's a jesus who promised to bear this discipleship burden with you who will forgive and support and restore you when you struggle even to get out of bed in the morning much less live successfully as a disciple who has promised to to walk with you and sustain you and pick you up when you fall in light of all that what possible excuse could you have to stay away what reason could you manufacture that could justify even the slightest hesitation here's what i want you to do i want you to pull out your phone right now jesus offers to give himself fully to you i know this is an odd thing for me to say but pull out your phone but he's only going to do that for those who are ready to give themselves fully to him you ready to do that he doesn't expect you to be perfect but he does demand you come after him with all your heart and i'm going to ask that you commit to that right now everybody take out your phone i want you to go to summitchurch.com or you can text the word commit to 33933 again i want to emphasize this is for everybody right if you're if you're here and you are living a faithful christian life i still want you to recommit because we're doing this together as a church we just want to recommit ourselves to be disciples when you go there to summitchurch.com you're going to see like there the front page it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna take you to a page where there's five things i'm gonna walk you through we're gonna do it together okay summitchurch.com there's gonna be a page there what i'm gonna do is i'm actually gonna pause for a minute and we'll put these things up and give you a reflection question i'm gonna take just a minute for everybody to catch up to me make sure you get your phone out and then we'll take 30 seconds there's a reflection question here and then we'll um we'll spend a couple moments walking through this okay hopefully that's enough time for some of you kids show your parents how to use their phones and get to this listen hey good news i'm asking you right now to join hundreds of people who've already done this have done it online and uh including 100 of our staff every one of our staff members has done that okay there are five things for you to check there worshiper that means you're just gonna say jesus there's gonna be no rival to my obedience it also means practically practically you're gonna commit to walk with him daily and to be a regular attender of of worship services you're committing to be a worshiper seconds family member that means you're not just gonna believe you're gonna belong to be a part of the family here at the summit we say church should not be an event you attend it's a family you belong to that means if you're a real disciple you'll be committed to the church may not be the biggest popular thing i've ever said but some of you saying you're committed to jesus and not being an active part of the church it's like saying you're you're married but you never come home to your spouse at night listen in the new testament following jesus and being an active part of a congregation are the same thing you can't love jesus and only date his church you got to commit serve it that means i'm going to use my life and my talents for ministry you might not know what that looks like yet that's okay you're just saying i'm willing jesus why don't here's what i have i want to serve you your body your mission steward that means committing to use your resources as a part of this mission again you may not know what that looks like yet but you're saying i'm i'm adopting this identity last one there witness witness that means you're committing to make sure people in your life know about jesus and you're committing to be a part of helping us get this good news from our neighborhoods to the nations again there's no such thing as a follower of jesus who's not an active part of the mission you might not do everything but you'll do something some of you like well okay i've checked these boxes what do i do now we're gonna have next steps resources you can find them right there on that page it'll take you to next steps and how to grow as a disciple in our church family listen if for some reason you feel like you can't say yes to all these that's okay i still want you to commit to what you can commit to and we want you to know that we are committed to loving you and helping encourage you as you grow as a disciple in fact i would say that this commitment is as much about our commitment to you as your commitment to to jesus finally let me say this for many of you this might represent the first time you've actually ever really fully surrendered to jesus you know maybe this is a huge moment right and i don't i realize in checking these boxes this is the first time you've actually said i'm gonna follow you so i'm gonna lead you in a moment here where you receive christ as lord and savior if you never have when we bow our heads at all of our don't turn off your phone yet but just bow your heads if this is your first time or you're surrendering to follow surrendering to follow jesus the gospel is about god's gift of forgiveness in christ that you got to receive so right now would you say something to jesus like lord jesus i know that i need a savior i receive you as my savior and i surrender my full life to you come into my heart and save me i give my all to you now listen with every hip out every eye closed if you just pray that with me open your eyes and there's a little box there at the bottom of those five that just says i'm ready for a relationship with jesus just check that box for you you're like this is the beginning of a true true beginning of relationship with jesus just check that final box that's all i ask father thank you for this moment thank you god for a church many disciples that are recommitting to be all in and to follow you with all their hearts and give you thanks in jesus name let's stand to our feet summit family at all of our campuses i know those of you joining home you can do what you need to do there but i want everybody to stand to our feet all over our campuses our worship teams are going to come let's declare let's worship the god who has given so much to us that we with joy give ourselves back to him